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The last issue of Standards Today focused on XML - the underpinning of ODF and hundreds of other standards - and one of the most important standards ever developed. Here is the editorial from that issue.

OK, so Apple has done it again. Whipped the technology and consumer media up into a feeding frenzy that is. But has it delivered with the truly magical and revolutionary product that was promised? Er, no dude, not by a long shot and here (in no particular order) are 15 reasons why the iPad is not a game-changer.

It's been an exciting time lately, and there have been a lot of developments. Here are some of my favorites: iPad, Stali, Psystar, RevLin, ReactOS, Haiku.

Tapping into a new revenue source, Ubuntu Linux's corporate backer Canonical has signed a partnership to use Yahoo's search results by default in the version of Firefox it ships.

Alfresco has announced that it is changing the licensing of the community edition of its enterprise content management system from GPL to LGPL. The move was announced by the company's CEO, John Newton, in a posting on his blog. He explained that the company had initially gone with the GPL licence three years ago as it was the "most widely used open source license and provided a fairness of use that meant we could comfortably grow the project, company and brand".

I use Ubuntu Linux as my sole operating system and I have learned that the Netflix Watch Instantly service is not available on Linux operating systems. I had heard that the Boxee project offers a workaround but the Netflix app is not currently available in Boxee. I understand that the Roku player, which you recommend, can stream Netflix service to a television. The Roku player runs Linux yet you don't offer your Watch Instantly service on Linux computers.

An Introduction to XML provides students and entry-level professionals with demonstrations of the basics of learning XML, covering topics such as Web 2.0, AJAX, RSS, Web Services and managing XML data. These short Web-based video modules provide clear examples of XML as well as references to popular Web sites that use XML.

There are quite a few time tracking solutions out there, including the nifty Rachota utility which not only makes it easy to track time spent on different tasks but also helps you to analyze the collected data.

IceCat3.6 is released and is available for download. IceCat is the GNU version of the Firefox browser, it is fully free software, as it removes the non-free Firefox artwork.

While the price took everyone by surprise, I'm still not sure that Apple can convince iPhone buyers that they really need this device when the one in our pockets does many of the same things. And we already own it.

Extended discard support means that Linux now supports ATA TRIM, which can increase SSD lifespan and throughput. New additions to the Linux kernel include HA solution DRBD and drivers for HP, LSI and VMware storage hardware. The new kernel version, expected in early March, also includes many minor improvements to the code for the Btrfs, Ext4 and ReiserFS file systems.

RevLin OS base is built upon a new kernel called PopCorn which is derived from a re-written version of the well established linux kernel, while still maintaining full binary support for applications and drivers allowing for vast hardware support. RevLin OS will not be like the other operating systems which rely on HTML5, CSS3 and JS - the data will not be stored in the cloud but locally and integrated with the cloud so you can access data from anywhere, but you don't rely on an internet connection. The whole OS is built from source and is not based on any distribution of Linux. [...] So, would you use it?

It all started with upgrading a CPU. It should have been a simple, inexpensive task, but it has taken on a life of its own, resulting in battles with warranty service and shopping for yet more new parts. Will the madness ever end?

Finch is a powerful text user interface instant messaging client based on libpurple, and it comes included in the Pidgin source, the popular GNOME IM client. Finch supports various protocols, including AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and IRC.

Zoho has decided to offer its Zoho Discussions tool free of charge to open source projects. It will even help customize the discussion forum for the individual needs of each group.

Talk about a careful balancing act involving Ubuntu. Canonical appears to have financial relationships with both Google and Yahoo. Here’s how the relationships — involving Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and Google Chrome OS — are shaping up. Plus, the potential financial implications for Canonical. Here's some perspective.

One of Silicon Valley's last true characters has signed off - Sun founder Scott McNealy has sent a final goodbye memo to his staff. In his own words McNealy is "a big mouth who is always ready with a clever quip" and his swansong email does not disappoint. He said the last four years (since he left the company) had "not been without serious withdrawal". He said: "So, to be honest, this is not a note this founder wants to write. Sun, in my mind, should have been the great and surviving consolidator. But I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company." He said he hoped the rest of the US economy would fall in love with capitalism again soon.

Audio processing and synthesis plugins are always a lively topic for musicians. Many contemporary music-makers rely completely upon their plugin collection for all their sound sources and processing routines, and it is not at all uncommon to discover that some of these composers have never learned to play a traditional instrument. However you feel about audio plugins they are a fact of life in modern music production.

The scientists at IBM Research – Zurich, in cooperation with the FUJIFILM Corporation of Japan, recorded data onto an advanced prototype tape, at a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch — about 39 times the areal data density of today's most popular industry-standard magnetic tape product.

Only three days after posting my blog regarding the plight of Google's Chinese customers and how their data is now at the whims of a US-based company and its conflict with the Chinese government, I read about the issues of SourceForge.net and the U.S. State Department's Export lists and how the data stored in a US-based company, sometimes created by non-U.S. based citizens, is now being controlled by U.S. State Department rules.